Say hello to…
…the Toyota Prius is an all-new take on the ultimate hybrid vehicle. The five seat hatchback is now only available as a plug-in hybrid. Toyota offers all versions of the Prius in two trim levels:
- Design
- Excel
Standard equipment on Design includes 17-inch steel wheels, keyless entry, blind spot monitor, heated front seats, 7-inch infotainment screen, reversing camera, satnav, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, wireless phone charging and dual-zone climate control.
Excel adds 19-inch alloys, digital rear view mirror, powered driver’s seat, powered boot lid and LED rear lights.
Is The Toyota Prius Suitable For My Fleet
Now that the Prius is a plug-in hybrid it makes even more sense than the previous generation car for company car drivers. The new ultra-sleek looks, as well as being super aerodynamic, also make the car far more appealing, especially in brighter colours and this should help residual values. The official electric range of 44 miles isn’t particularly amazing, but in our test we were getting very close to this figure even with a decent mix of motorway miles.
What harms the fleet appeal is the small boot space. While there’s plenty of room inside for four adults, the boot is only 284 litres. For a car that’s nearly 4.6m long, it isn’t great at carrying luggage.
Leasing A Toyota Prius
Gateway2lease is offering the Toyota Prius in top Excel specification for £352 a month on a 9+36 contract with 10,000 miles a year. Maintenance is forecast at £33 a month, according to Gensen Reports, and Class 1A NIC comes in at £40 a month.
Driving A Toyota Prius
For a car that’s dedicated to efficiency, the new Prius is also an impressively good drive.
The ride comfort over the UK’s pothole-strewn roads is impressively refined and the steering weight is wonderfully judged to give the driver the best sense of what’s going on at the wheels. And while the suspension is compliant enough to handle rough roads, it’s also firm enough to make the car feel agile.
On paper the Prius is relatively quick too with a 0-60mph time of 6.8 seconds, however, in everyday use it doesn’t feel like a swift car. You can engage ‘sport’ mode and the car does feel a like it’s providing a bit more shove, but with it comes a lot of, not particularly pleasant, noise – mostly from the automatic gearbox.
Being gentle with the accelerator is much more the car’s thing. It will hang on to electric only power for as long as possible with the 2.0-litre petrol only cutting in if it absolutely has to.
Drive like this and efficiency is assured. In a week’s driving with regular plugging in, we saw fuel consumption above 99.9mpg – the highest the Prius trip computer will read and a EV efficiency of 4.1 miles per kWh.
In fact, it’s the trip computer that is one of the Prius’s weak points. Apart from not showing anything above 99.9mpg, it’s also complicated to operate and it’s impossible to show both mpg and m/kWh at the same time.
The system for turning off the warning for lane keep and speed limit take far too many steps, too. Similarly, we never found out how to turn off the system that watches the driver and then chimes at you if it thinks you’re not looking directly ahead.
The only other issue with the driving experience is the design of the centre console and transmission tunnel. The lower part of the console – that houses the gear selector – sticks out toward the driver (and passenger on their side). For those taller drivers, this is just where the side of you knee would rest and on longer journeys can be uncomfortable. However, it will only be an issue for a very small number of specifically sized people. Test before you buy.
Overall, the Prius is an impressive car. Highly efficient, amazingly good looking and an involving drive.
FleetandLeasing.com Verdict On The Toyota Prius
Efficient, good looking and an involving drive. The new Prius is impressive.
Toyota Prius
- Model: Prius Excel
- Power: 223hp
- Torque: 208Nm
- Max speed: 109mph
- 0-62mph: 6.8s
- Official fuel figure: 403.5mpg
- Test fuel figure: >99.0mpg
- Official range: 44 miles
- Test range: 38 miles
- CO2 emissions: 17/km
- BIK tax band 2022/23: 9%
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